trails in the foothills. I knew that riding along the side of the road in the dirt was illegal, so when my brother and I went riding, we'd push our bikes. I think they weighed around 180-190 pounds (CR125 and MX125).

Pushing it up the hill to get to the Murdock canal in Pleasant Grove (the end of civilization at the time) wasn't easy, so we'd start it, put it in gear and walk alongside it as we idled past the houses.

There were a lot of us riders / moto-xers back then, and everybody else rode like a bat out of hades, wide open throttle to get to the safety of the hills, away from the cops - who would impound your bike in a heartbeat. It was loud and obnoxious, with dirt kicking off the knobbies as the race to the hills was in earnest. But my brother and I tried to be considerate and quiet as we walked on by.

Then some do-gooder home owner came out at us, brandishing his steel rake at us (over his head like he was going to take our heads off with it). He screamed at us "underage" drivers and made all sorts of threats of physical violence.

We hopped on our already-running bikes spitting out rocks and sand, and took off in a hurry before he could hit us.

I look at it differently as an adult, but as kids, we *never* walked quietly past his house again. We'd rev it up as we raced past his house, trying to improve our rooster tail skills every time. He chased us a number of times, but he had to run all the way across his lawn to head us off... which meant that we'd go even faster... and salute him.

Point of the story: if kids are having harmless fun, and if they're trying to get along in society, don't get all pissy with them... it'll usually just escalate things.